US climber killed on Mexican volcano

BOCA DEL RIO, Mexico (AP) — A Mexican official says an American climber has died on Mexico's tallest mountain after slipping on an icy slope and falling about 300 feet.

Charles King, 25, was scaling the Pico de Orizaba, an 18,941-foot peak that straddles the states of Puebla and Veracruz, when he and three companions fell at a height of around 15,000 feet.

Ricardo Maza Limon, head of civil protection emergency services for Veracruz state, says King's body had to be physically lowered to 12,000 feet in order for a helicopter to transport it out of the area.